His eyes danced with laughter again. “How about I lead the discussion?”
In contrast to my wet and cheap clothes, he wore a shirt of the most exquisite fabric, a pale blue color.
Standing in front of me, he rolled up his sleeves, exposing muscled arms with thorny tattoos.
There was something distinctly disturbing about the way he did so, like he was about to get to work. And the kind of work people tended to do when they had a woman chained up in front of them wasn’t usually anything nice.
I wondered for a moment if I could swing my legs and snap his neck with my thighs. I’d read that once in a book—the captive woman just swung her body, clamped her thighs around the man’s neck, and twisted. Neck snapped.
It seemed wildly unlikely, though. And worst of all, he seemed immortal. I’d still be stuck here, hanging in chains, when he woke up and tortured me to death.
My throat went dry. Would Lyr come for me?
“Good,” said the Nameless One. “Now that I’ve seen the fear in your eyes, and I can hear your heart speeding up, I’m sure you’ve become fully acquainted with the gravity of your situation, and your terror is delicious.”
“Why am I here?”
“I’m sure you’re up to speed by now, that despite the shocking physical beauty you see before you, I’m one of the worst people you could have the misfortune to meet.”
“You really didn’t need to spell it—”
He put a finger to his lips. “Shhh. I wasn’t finished. You came to me to kill me, with a dagger.” His voice sounded so calm and soothing. “Did you really think you could kill me with a little dagger?”
“I had no idea I’d find you here. I had to improvise.”
That drumbeat pounded in my belly—a dark, primal invitation. It seemed to follow him wherever he went.
He cocked his head. “Do you have any idea how many women would pay to have me chain them up? This doesn’t really seem a fitting punishment. You know, I could draw out your agony until you begged for death instead.”
Something like panic started to climb up my throat. It was making it hard to think clearly. That, and the heat in here, and that infernal drumbeat. Phantom flames seemed to rise up around him, orange and gold flickering over his body.
The spikes that were just millimeters from my back. A droplet of sweat rolled down my temple.
The Nameless One narrowed his eyes. “You smelled of the Ankou when you first came to me. You’re working with him.”
Maybe it wasn’t the blood, then, that had him so irate. Maybe he really hated how Lyr smelled.
“Get to the point.” The chains in my wrist were cutting into my skin.
This seemed to amuse him more. “I’ll give you the athame your little heart desires. But I need two things from you.”
I swallowed hard. “I don’t know how to get to Nova Ys.”
He sighed. “I don’t give a fuck about Nova Ys. Why would I need an island when I have all this?” He gestured at the stony walls. Then he turned, crossing to the rock slab. He picked up the piece of fruit.
“All I need you to do is to take a bite of my fruit, Aenor, filthy little kingdom drowner that you are.”
“I didn’t drown my kingdom,” I said through clenched teeth.
“But that’s how the story goes, and that’s the part that matters.”
“You’re a monster, you know that?”
He narrowed his eyes. “Yes, I believe I’ve heard that once or twice before, over the millennia. People hate me; I hate them. Everyone agrees I’m a dick. However, I promise you, I enjoy my life anyway. Now how about you enjoy something for once in your sad little life.”
I glared at the fruit. Eating it was definitely a bad idea.
“What’s the other thing you want?” I asked.
“I want to know where your mother is.”
I stared at him like he’d lost his mind. “What? You don’t seem insane… Scratch that, you do seem insane because you have a woman chained up in a rocky basement,” I rasped, my throat parched. “So let me refresh your memory. You killed her a hundred years ago. My mother is dead.”
He tilted his head, a line forming between his eyebrows. “I did kill her, yes. But of course, she didn’t stay dead. You do know that, don’t you?”
A strange numbness overtook me, until I could no longer feel the burning in my arms, or the chafing at my wrists. Everything seemed to go quiet.
His sensual laugh skimmed over my skin, his eyes sparkling. “Your lover didn’t tell you? I smelled Lyr’s scent on you, and he forgot to tell you this key piece of information? Now that is hilarious.” His laughter seemed genuine. “It’s a real betrayal, isn’t it?” That mocking tone made me want to break things. Him, specifically.
The Nameless One cast a slow gaze over my body. “Apparently he thinks you’re good enough to fuck, but not good enough to trust with the truth.”
Lyr. Death god. A man who could pass between worlds. He’d committed a crime against the gods—an unnatural act. He’d killed tons of people and didn’t seem to feel bad about that. And what was worse than killing people?
“Lyr brought my mother back from the dead,” I murmured.
Darkness poured from my enemy’s body, melding with the shadows around him. “And I need to find her.”
The betrayal crashed over me like a storm wave. I knew Lyr had been keeping something from me. And this is what it was?
What else had he kept from me? A promise to Melisande, perhaps. He was using me to get the athame, and then he’d be gone.
A hot tear streaked down my cheek. “I don’t know where she is.”
“Hmm. Mayyyybe not.” He held my gaze. “The athame will lead us to her.”
I didn’t want him anywhere near my mother. He’d already killed her once.
My thoughts whirled. Why hadn’t Mama come to find me if she was alive? I didn’t get it. “For how long?”
He shrugged. “Months.”
“You’re wrong,” I said with more certainty than I felt. “She can’t be alive. She would have come for me right away.”
His gaze shot to the ceiling, and he let out a long sigh, like he was appealing to the gods for patience. “Oh, would she? Or maybe she doesn’t love you. In any case, there is your other task. Like I said, if I’m to set you free…”
Then from the shadows—he picked up the athame. I stared at it, a deep longing unfurled in my body. The blade was the pale green of jade, but the hilt looked like bone. Gods, I could feel its power from there. My power. Sea magic.
The sight of it in the hands of the Nameless One made me feel physically sick.
He held it up. “Is this what you so desire?”
He knew it was. I wasn’t going to repeat myself.
Using the athame, he started cutting into the fruit. As he did, a wild hunger ripped through my body.
Chapter 35
He held it up to my lips, and all my worries drifted away like seeds on the wind. Lyr’s betrayal—my mother raised from the grave… They were intangible thoughts I could no longer grasp. I wanted to taste it.
I didn’t know what it would do. Maybe it was enchanted, so he could trap me in his home as a slave.